


Like a Butterfly's Wings

by Hazama_d20



Series: Side Hoes Week 2021 [4]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Backstory, Gen, origin, tags are hard okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29971323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazama_d20/pseuds/Hazama_d20
Summary: Clockwork has always been, and always will. When you see every outcome, it's easy to plan ahead.
Series: Side Hoes Week 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2198235
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	Like a Butterfly's Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Another side hoes week prompt, today's was Clockwork and Origin.

Clockwork existed before mankind. He, unlike most of the ghosts, made his way into the ghost zone. He was not born there. Not that anyone knew that, nor did it have any real bearing on anything. A pebble thrown into a lake the year before didn’t mean anything to the visitor today.

Small things added up over time, and if anyone had time, it was the master of it. 

An era ago, Clockwork had observed a rock, floating in the ghost zone. An infinite number of timelines spawned from that little rock, smaller than a golf ball. Clockwork knew all of them. 

He had made a choice, and tapped the rock with his staff. At the time, he chose the form of the staff to be a simple club. Humans - his favorite creature to watch for now - were just beginning to figure out that they could use a hefty stick as a weapon. 

The rock spun lazily in the ambient ectoplasm in the zone and slowly shifted out of place, and Clockwork left it alone, as the timelines converged. 

He observed the rock hit a sleeping spirit, angering it and sending it into a violent fury for a minor reason The ghost raged and frothed and scared other spirits. Except for one, a ghost by the name of Pariah. 

When this ghost who was filled with fury, anger, and hate met Pariah, instead of him fleeing he rose to meet him. Power met rage and crushed it, pounding it into submission. All that was left of the ghost of anger was a broken core, one that Pariah held for an eon. 

The rock continued on its way, as one ghost saved brought another ghost, and before Pariah knew it, he had amassed a small army, and that’s indeed what it was. He led his army to defeat several powerful horrors of the ghost zone. Soon, the zone knew to fear the dark army, led by Pariah. The core of the angry beast that started this whole thing was forged into a ring that the king kept on his finger. 

As for the rock, it had found a stable position until it was knocked aside by Pariah Dark’s army, marching and conquering. What had once been a thing of protection had gone the way all those that gain power do. Instead of protection, he sought to control, instead of gifts of tribute, he demanded taxes, instead of peace, he brought fire and war. 

It was then that ghosts had come to Clockwork, asking him to stop Pariah. An infinite number of timelines branched out from that moment. With a sigh, Clockwork agreed. With a single breath, timelines converged. 

Stopping Pariah was a trivial task for one who could stop time, let alone the others who were asked to help, but unlike the others, Clockwork did not act out of fear, or obligation. It was a whim, or so the others thought. 

So after Pariah was sealed, the ghosts found a new fear when they saw how callous the Master of All Time viewed their plights. 

It made sense that they feared the one who controlled time just as humans feared death, which was inevitable for all living things; ghosts feared the passing of time, which was inevitable for all ghosts. 

After a long enough passing of time, ghosts forgot who they were, they forgot what they had been, they forgot what they desired.

And the Master of All Time was just as uncaring as the passage of it. 

An eon later, Clockwork was approached by a group of ghosts. They offered to take some of Clockwork’s duties from him; in exchange, he’d be bound to them. They offered him what he had an abundance of, time.

Clockwork did not need to fight the urge to laugh at them. He had done it the moment the first zeptosecond ever had passed.

Again, an infinite number of timelines appeared before Clockwork, and with a stroke of a pen, they converged into one.

And Clockwork lost half his sight. 

But what was half of infinite? Everything and nothing.

“Now, care to observe the door?” It was the first words Clockwork had spoken in over a thousand years. With half his sight gone, some things were already starting to surprise him now, and it was  _ wonderful _ . For the first time  _ ever _ he had to rely on his memory. 

Clockwork felt strange as he ran a finger down along the newly made scar on his face, the result of him losing half of his sight. It took him but a moment to realize it was because he was smiling. 

Clockwork turned back to his lair, as the newly dubbed Observants left, thinking they had won. But they, unlike Clockwork, were so limited in their view. Even granted half of Clockwork’s sight, they didn’t understand what they were looking at. 

They didn’t take the time to. 

They didn’t see EVERYTHING. 

And then a rock, forgotten by all except one, struck another two, sending them scattering like billiards. 

One found a natural portal to the real world and dropped into a young child’s hand. The glowing concentrated mass of ectoplasm fascinated the boy, who ran to show it to his parents. But by the time the boy had found his father, the rock had vanished from his hands, dissipating into whisps of ectoplasm. 

“Maybe it was a ghost?” the boy’s father chuckled. At the boy’s pout, he tousled his son’s hair. “Don’t worry, Jack, I believe you.” The words were far from comforting, because even a child as unobservant as Jack knew when someone was mocking him. 

The boy looked down at his hands, empty. He knew what he saw, and he’d believe it for his entire life. This one moment would fuel an obsession that would match any ghost’s. 

Some day, he’d prove ghosts exist.

The other rock did not find a natural portal. Instead, it found a simple man-made portal. A traditional one, mirror facing mirror. And a little girl saying, “Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary.”

And the timing was perfect. 

A small chunk of ectoplasm dropped in the sink in front of her, lighting up the room and casting a green glow about the area. It only lasted for a few seconds, but out of anyone, Clockwork could tell you how important a single second could be. 

When the rock was gone, and the room was dark again, the silence in the room was shattered by a knock. “Maddie! Maddie! Is everything okay?”

“No! I mean yes!” she shouted back. She didn’t tell them about the rock, they’d never believe her, but she knew.

She was young but smart, and she knew what she saw. A desire to learn more about it would lead her to college, meeting a man who shared a similar story, of a rock appearing from nowhere and vanishing before their eyes. 

The third member of their little trio never saw a rock himself. He was more drawn by the woman’s beauty, but he learned on his own that ghosts were indeed real, when he himself became one.

The final rock, the original one that Clockwork had tapped back at the dawn of humanity, found yet another man-made portal. This one, however, was not on, not yet. The rock sat there, trapped between wires and circuits, when the current passed through, the emergency circuit breakers tripped, and a switch that should have been on turned off. 

A few hours later, the rock had disappeared, leaving behind a perfect system that would tear open a portal to the ghost zone, and a fourteen-year-old boy accidentally flipped a switch that was off to on. 

An infinite number of possibilities expanded out from that moment, and Clockwork let out a contented sigh. A million years of thought and planning had begun to pay off. Half his work was gone, and soon he had someone else he could pass his job to. 

A bang echoed in his lair as the front door slammed open. “Clockwork! Can I use your portals to go back in time to prevent something from happening?”

Clockwork groaned. Eventually. Eventually, he’d be able to pass his job to Daniel, but for now, he had another lesson to teach. 

  
  
  
  



End file.
